Mykolas Alekna (born 28 September 2002) is a Lithuanian athlete who specializes in the

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disk (mathematics), disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an classical antiqui ...

. He is the current world record holder of the event with 74.35 metres (243 ft 11 in) which will be subject to ratification. At the age of 19, he won the silver medal at the 2022 World Championships, becoming the youngest world discus medallist in history. Alekna was then the youngest ever winner in his discipline at the

2022 European Championships The 2022 European Championships were the second edition of the European Championships. It was a multi-sport event which took place in Munich, Germany from 11 to 21 August 2022. The tournament began three days after the conclusion of the 2022 Commo ...

, setting the competition record in the process. In 2021, he was the World Under-20 and European U20 champion. Mykolas is the son of double Olympic discus throw champion

Virgilijus Alekna Virgilijus Alekna (; 13 February 1972) is a Lithuanian former discus thrower and politician. He won medals at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics, including two golds. After retiring from athletics, Alekna was elected to the national parliament, t ...

. His brother Martynas Alekna is also a discus thrower.

Career

In June 2022, 19-year-old Mykolas Alekna threw his new personal best of 69.81 m while finishing second at the

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) one-day mee ...

meet, the longest ever discus throw by a teenager. At the 2022 World Championships held in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

in July, he lost only to

Kristjan Čeh Kristjan Čeh (born 17 February 1999) is a Slovenian athlete specialising in the discus throw. He won the gold medal at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, setting a championship record in the process. Čeh placed second at the 2022 European ...

, becoming the youngest world discus medallist in history. Less than a month later at the European Championships Munich 2022, Alekna became the first teenager to win a medal in the discus throw, let alone the gold, beating Čeh and all three medallists from the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

. His father had won this title 16 years earlier. On 29 April 2023 at The Big Meet in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

, Alekna became the youngest discus thrower in history to throw beyond 70 metres, moving up to 18th on the world all-time list with his new best of 71.00 m, a new European U23 record. On the second day of the 2024 Oklahoma Throws Series World Invitational in

Ramona, Oklahoma Ramona is a town in Washington County, Oklahoma, Washington County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 535 at the United States Census, 2010, 2010 census. The town began as Bon-Ton, but changed its name to Ramona in 1899 in honor of the He ...

on 14 April, Alekna set a new world record (pending ratification) of 74.35 m, surpassing

Jürgen Schult Jürgen Schult (, ; born 11 May 1960) is a German former track and field athlete and, as of September 2021, the world record holder in the discus. Dating from 1986, this is the longest-standing record in men's track and field. Schult represent ...

's previous record of 74.08 m. This record had stood since 1986, making it the longest-standing world record in men's athletics. Under near-perfect conditions, Alekna surpassed the mark of 70 m with all six of his attempts (throwing 72.21, 70.32, 72.89, 70.51, 74.35 and 70.50 m), each of which stood among the 100 best discus throws of all time.As of 13 April 2024, the 100th best discus throw stood at 70.26 m.

International competitions

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alekna, Mykolas Lithuanian male discus throwers 2002 births Living people World Athletics U20 Championships winners 21st-century Lithuanian people European Athletics Championships winners World Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics record holders California Golden Bears men's track and field athletes United States collegiate record holders in athletics (track and field)